The Boomtown Rats once sang “I don’t like Mondays” and I could happily sing my own version of that entitled I don’t like Januarys! Looking back through the years I have been writing this blog I see that it seems to be a recurrent theme too. I’m afraid that January hasn’t really floated my boat for quite a long time now. I suppose it comes as an anticlimax really after the Christmas period, the weather is never very good, the mornings and evenings are dark, and it seems to go on and on. This January has lived up to its normal self and although we have been pretty busy as usual, I am more than ready to see the back of it.
OK…after that cheery start I suppose I should go back to the beginning then. We just about managed to stay up on New Years Eve to welcome in the New Year, but were soon in bed after we had done that. We had a nice day on New Years Day with Hazel, Phil, Layla and the baby here for lunch and a bit of fun afterwards playing games for a while. The next day Hazel decided to try and take Layla and the baby swimming and so we tried the pool at The Sands Centre here in Carlilse for the first time. It all went well and although I thought the water was a bit cooler than I would have liked, the baby seemed to enjoy it too which was surprising as she is not that keen on her bathtimes really. It was deemed a success and we repeated the experience again the following week. I have not been swimming regularly for a while now as my swimming pal, Linda hasn’t been well or has been on Granny duties a lot lately so it was nice to be back in a pool again.
We have met up with Linda and Mike a couple of times this month for lunch and to catch up with their news. Linda is having problems with gall stones and her gall bladder will eventually need to come out. The two of them had had a nice Christmas in Wales with all their family…until she ended up in hospital for two nights! Hospitals have also loomed large in our family news this month too as our daughter-in-law, Susie, had her big operation for colon cancer early in January. All went as planned and she was discharged home after four days, much too early in my opinion, but she was glad to get home and has been recovering well since then. We travelled down to Manchester on the day she was discharged to help with collecting the grandchildren from school and generally lend a bit of support to them all. We only stayed one night though, as I had to get back in readiness for my own hospital visit the next day to have an angiogram done to see the state of my eyes. This all went well too. I was a bit apprehensive about it all but it went smoothly and as it was done in the eye clinic where I usually go to have my injections, I felt as if I was amongst friends! I am now waiting to see what the outcomes of this will be. I was glad though, that just as an afterthought really, the nurse did warn me about having fluorescent yellow pee for a day or so as the dye is flushed through my system. It was very fluorescent I can tell you…talk about glow in the dark… and would have been very alarming had I not been warned! I was in awe though at how quickly this dye got to my bladder! At least my kidneys seem to be in good working order! We did have some more news form Manchester later in the month which is not that good. Susie needs to have some follow up chemotherapy which we were all hoping would not be necessary, and that came as a bit of a shock. They will find out soon how much and what the schedules will be soon and then we can all make plans accordingly.
We have continued with our usual meetups and activities throughout the month trying to keep the gloom to a minimum. My shifts at the Op shop have been very busy and although I still enjoy doing them, I do get very tired sometimes. Geoff is still playing pickleball regularly and is beginning to get fed up with his pals in France sending him photos of them playing outside under blue skies, whilst he is playing indoors under grey ones! Our little trusty car passed its MOT once again which made us happy…although we are now beginning to wonder if we can actually get another car seat in the back to transport the baby should that ever become necessary. We love our little car and will be sad if she has to go 
Our activities at church have continued and we had a good café church service last week. Mind you, I have said that we are not doing bacon butties again for a long time. We served over 60 of them which was a bit tiring!! I have done my Talking Newspaper for the Visually impaired session again and I have to say finding “happy” news in our local rag proved to be very hard as usual. Having a six-page supplement in one of my editions for bereavement advice and counselling, did not help with the happiness factor! Our first Speakers Club session of the year went well too and it was lovely to see some new faces there. I was the chair for that meeting and I made sure it was a fun session, so I hope they all come back next time and maybe bring a friend or two!
We also had a nice “post Christmas” lunch with our U3A French speaking group which was good apart from the venue putting us in the exact same spot under the leaky roof where we were last year. And yes, the roof is still leaking! We complained again but were not met with a lot of sympathy I’m afraid. We were not impressed and I think we will definitely be changing the venue next year. All the secret Santa gifts went down well though and I was pleased with my angel ornament as was Geoff with his book “The Debateable Land” which discusses the history of the area around here and Scotland.
I am happy…yes, I know, I am not supposed to be happy in January, am I?.. but at long last we have managed to find an electrician (the fourth one we have tried) who stuck to his word and we now have a lovely warm bathroom courtesy of a heated towel rail. It was installed without fuss one afternoon and we are very pleased with it. I can now luxuriate in a warm bathroom and better still can have dry towels all year round 
Which is just as well as the weather here has not been wonderful all month and getting those towels dry has been a big problem! Although we seem to have escaped a lot of the storms which have battered the UK this month, it has been pretty wet and windy at times. We have not seen any snow in Carlisle though.
This last week has been a bit full on yet again, just to round off the month in style. Our little granddaughter has chickenpox. Fortunately, she has not been too poorly with it but has driven her mummy up the wall as she hates not being able to go to school, play with her friends or get to all her activities such as gymnastics, swimming or Rainbows! We have helped out whenever possible to try and keep everyone sane and we are now just keeping our fingers crossed that the baby doesn’t catch it. I have had my eye injections again – I am thinking of asking for a chair in the waiting room with my name on it as I seem to have been there quite a bit recently. We have just had a message from our son telling us the schedule for Susie’s chemo so it looks like we will be making a few more trips to Manchester in the next few months starting with one next week. However, there is brightness on the horizon as we get to the end of this dreary month - we have booked our flights to France for our usual April trip…and frankly it can’t come soon enough. My lovely kind pals in France have been sending me loads of photos of all the fabulous Mimosa which looks beautiful as always. I can almost smell the scent! Roll on April I say! We have also just booked a night away in the Lakes in February to celebrate Geoff’s birthday so that is also something nice to look forward to in the near future.
And so, on that somewhat brighter note I will say farewell to dreary January…
A bientot mes amis…
